Given that we are not likely to agree on this subject, I offer this information as food for thought. I do not mean for it to be argumentative.
Depending on your definition of "the same way", UPS may or may not move packages the same way. If one defines it as someone picks it up, it gets transported, and someone delivers it, then essentially it is the same way. However, if one defines it as someone picks it up and then there's about an 85% chance it will go on an aircraft with one company but an 85% chance it will go on a truck with the other, and then someone delivers it, then, no, they don't move their packages the same way.
UPS is an airline. Or at least part of UPS, Inc. is an airline. Keep in mind that back in the 90's UPS wanted to be covered under the RLA and FedEx supported that move. Not sure if it was the courts, NMB, or both that told UPS no.
There's an article out there somewhere that makes a good point about a better name for the RLA would be the TLA, Transportation Labor Act and should cover companies such as UPS and FedEx. After all, there should be no doubt that UPS' strike in 1997 disrupted interstate commerce. Had UPS been under RLA then, the strike might not have happened and the IBT might not have got what it wanted vis-a-vis the pension fund.
There's all this rhetoric out there about UPS and FedEx should be classified the same way and that way has to be under the NLRA. Why? Why does it have to be the NLRA? Why can't it be under the RLA? The simple reason is that the IBT doesn't want it that way because they know how hard it would be to organize FedEx and the cost doesn't justify the potential revenue. And UPS doesn't want it that way because they know that if FedEx is reclassified under the NLRA, there's a good chance that it will give UPS a competitive advantage so why not go along for the ride.
All that aside, the airline discounts have nothing to do with the perception of an airline. I would imagine that UPS gets discounts at least for its pilots and should FedEx change to NLRA, FedEx will still get those discounts for its pilots.